Keyboard remapping, Custom key combinations

clofal · 01-31-2012, 01:20 PM

My tab key is slowly dying on me. I have to press it harder and harder each time. I took the key off and cleaned the dust and crud out. No help.

What I want to do is use a combination of two keys to emulate the tab key. Such as "Ctrl+`" or some other combination that is never used.

Running Ubuntu 11.10

Any help is appreciated!

bigrigdriver · 02-01-2012, 10:59 AM

Ubuntu Howto: Custom keyboard layout definitions

DavidMcCann · 02-01-2012, 12:00 PM

You could always put tab on a singe key that's never (Pause? Scroll lock?) or seldom (Caps lock) used. The approved way is to create a bash script that runs at log-in and uses xmodmap commands. The quick and dirty way is to edit /usr/share/X11/xkb/keycodes/evdev and swap the codes for TAB and whatever you decide to use.

clofal · 02-04-2012, 12:45 AM

I ended up swapping caps lock and tab using xmodmap. Altered the ~/.Xmodmap and just swapped the two keycodes. I think they were 23 and 66 for anyone else who wanted to do this. Also make sure to clear the caps lock afterwards, otherwise every press of caps lock will tab and also caps.